


I'd Give All My Lives For You

by OverlyObsessed223



Series: umbrella academy one-shots where people give a damn about klaus [4]
Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Death But Not Really, Diego Hargreeves Needs A Hug, Klaus Hargreeves Needs A Hug, Minor Injuries, Not Canon Compliant, Protective Diego Hargreeves, Protective Number Five | The Boy, Self-Sacrifice, The Commission
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-01
Updated: 2020-09-01
Packaged: 2021-03-06 15:01:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,915
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26230822
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OverlyObsessed223/pseuds/OverlyObsessed223
Summary: “Guys, go,” Klaus says, his voice firmer than it’s ever been, and his siblings turn around to look at him.“What?” Five’s face twists in confusion.“Go through the tunnel,” Klaus orders, pointing towards it, just in case they forgot it was there. “I’ll meet you guys at the motel that’s just outside the city limits later. Go.”Or, when the Commission corners him and his siblings, Klaus realizes the only way they can get out alive is if he pays the little girl upstairs a visit.
Relationships: Ben Hargreeves & Klaus Hargreeves, Diego Hargreeves & Klaus Hargreeves, Klaus Hargreeves & Everyone, Klaus Hargreeves & God, Klaus Hargreeves & The Hargreeves, Klaus Hargreeves & Vanya Hargreeves, Number Five | The Boy & Klaus Hargreeves
Series: umbrella academy one-shots where people give a damn about klaus [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1890268
Comments: 28
Kudos: 1263





	I'd Give All My Lives For You

**Author's Note:**

> hey, i'm back again with another one shot.
> 
> hope you like it :)

They should have known that the Commission wouldn’t leave them alone. 

Apparently, according to Five, the Commission is royally pissed off about the fact that they stopped the apocalypse, and honestly, given the fact that they’ve spent centuries perfecting the timeline only for a bunch of assholes to stop it from happening, Klaus can’t say he doesn’t _understand_ what they’re going through. But also, ending all life on Earth is not good, so yeah, he doesn’t regret foiling their plans in the least, but they obviously do, with their _huge_ army of Commission agents they sent after them. 

They’re actually out of town when they decide to attack—they’re staying at a farm an hour upstate on the outskirts of a large forest to properly train Vanya so that she learns how to not blow up the moon or something like that. Five and Diego had been outside with Vanya, working on her training, Luther had been standing by the window, watching in a way that Klaus felt was a bit creepy, and Allison and Klaus were sitting at the kitchen table painting their nails. 

“How do we feel about this shade?” Klaus had asked, holding up a pastel pink nail polish, when suddenly, he heard yelling from outside. Luther had run outside, Allison and Klaus on his heels, only to duck down behind a bale of hay at the sound of gunfire. 

The Commission had come, and they weren’t leaving until the Umbrella Academy was dead.

That had been _two hours ago._

Now, they’re running through the thick trees as Commission agents attack them from every which way, and they’re being led by _Klaus_ of all people. Well, technically, Ben is in front, being channeled by Klaus so the Horror can clear a path, and Luther is taking up the rear as he’s immune to bullets. His energy is draining by the minute, and Klaus doesn’t miss the way Ben’s form is now flickering in and out of reality, and he worries he can’t hold this for much longer. 

“Ben!” Klaus shouts, glancing back at his siblings. Diego ran out of knives an hour ago but he’s still using his fists to pummel stray agents that happen to get past Ben’s tentacles, Five is still jumping through space to fight, though his jumps are getting more and more spread out as time goes on, and Allison and Vanya are clinging to each other—Allison is rumoring the agents who dare come near while Vanya has her ears covered, trying to stop herself from blowing up and killing them all, which would make these last two hours for nothing. “We—I can’t—”

He cuts himself off because Ben knows, he can feel Klaus’ energy because he _is_ Klaus’ energy. 

“This way!” Ben yells, swerving sharply to the right. Klaus hears a yelp from behind him, and when he looks over his shoulder, his heart stops when he sees Allison lying motionless on the ground. Luther leaps over and scoops her up in her arms, Diego grabbing Vanya’s arm and leading her on. 

Klaus feels his heart sink when they reach a dead end. 

It’s not just a dead-end, no, it’s a huge gorge with a large, unforgiving river flowing through it. To fall into it would surely kill them all, so that is not an option, and the only other way to go is back into the sea of Commission agents, who are about thirty seconds behind them (his time in Vietnam helped with learning how far away the enemy is). 

“Shit,” Five hisses, his face paler than usual, and Klaus realizes he’s holding his side with his right hand, his hand and shirt stained with blood. 

“How many agents do these guys _have_?!” Diego sounds a bit hysterical. 

Klaus takes a split second to look around at his siblings. Vanya’s head is bleeding, and she’s currently leaning against Diego, her eyes wide and fearful as she stares ahead into the trees. Luther is talking to Allison, begging her to wake up with no luck, Diego is breathing heavily and favoring his left leg, bruises and cuts littering his face, and Five is swaying back and forth—and that’s when it hits him. 

They’re not going to make it out of here alive. 

“Hey, Klaus, look, there’s a tunnel,” Ben, who is now invisible again, points to somewhere behind Klaus, and Klaus turns to his left to see a tunnel that may lead out to safety.

“They’ll know we went in there,” Diego says when Klaus points it out to everyone else. 

“Diego’s right, they’ll follow us through and then we’ll be fighting them inside a small tunnel,” Luther adds, his voice tired and defeated. 

“Well, what other choice do we have?” Five snaps, still swaying, and Klaus would move to help steady him if he wasn’t sure he’d get his hand bitten off. “There’s nowhere else to go.”

But that won’t solve anything, Klaus knows. It’ll just delay the Commission catching up to them and killing them off one by one, wearing them down until they can’t stand to fight any longer. They can’t keep running anymore. 

The Commission won’t stop until they’re dead. 

And then, in a blink of an eye, Klaus gets an idea. He looks behind him, down at the raging river below, and back at the tunnel. He looks back at Ben, who’s catching on because at this point they know each other so well it’s hard _not_ to know what the other is thinking. 

“Klaus… no,” Ben frowns, his voice hardly a whisper. 

“Ben, it’s our only option,” Klaus swallows, his chest pounding as his body catches up to his brain. 

“What if you don’t come back this time? What then?” Ben bites out, every emotion in his eyes as his voice shakes, but the Commission is getting closer by the second and this is their _only chance_ at survival. 

“Guys, go,” Klaus says, his voice firmer than it’s ever been, and his siblings turn around to look at him. 

“What?” Five’s face twists in confusion. 

“Go through the tunnel,” Klaus orders, pointing towards it, just in case they forgot it was there. “I’ll meet you guys at the motel that’s just outside the city limits later. _Go_.”

“Klaus, we’re not leaving you here,” Diego growls. Footsteps are getting closer, and desperation bubbles up inside of him.

“Yes you are,” Klaus tells him, his voice surprisingly calm because he’s not afraid. He stopped being afraid a long time ago. 

“You’ll _die_ , you _colossal_ _idiot_ ,” Five bristles, looking at Klaus as if _Klaus_ is the idiot who doesn’t know what he’s talking about. “I’m not—”

“I need you guys to trust me,” Klaus cuts his smallest brother off, bouncing his eyes around to look at each of his siblings. “If there is one time in our lives that you decide to trust me, _please_ make it now.”

Diego shakes his head furiously.

“Trust me, and _go._ _Please.”_

“Okay,” Five whispers, determination setting in his face, probably because he too knows there's no other way out. “But if you don’t come back, I’ll kick your ass.”

“Oh, I’ll come back,” Klaus grins, and Ben grimaces at that. Five nods, and tugs Diego and Vanya towards the tunnel, Diego struggling against his hold as he looks back at Klaus with wide, panicked, tear filled eyes. 

This better work, or else Klaus will never forgive himself. 

Klaus looks over at Ben, who is standing by his side, watching their siblings run to safety. 

“You sure you don’t want to go with them?” Klaus asks him, and Ben looks at him like he’s dumb. 

“I’m not leaving you to die alone,” Ben tells him, still upset, but Klaus doesn’t have time to unpack this now. 

“How kind of you.”

Their siblings disappear into the tunnel, and Klaus has to time this just right so that the agents see him fall back into the gorge—and hopefully, they’re dumb enough to think that they all jumped. The footsteps are just behind the tree line, and Klaus can see their black uniforms and their guns, aimed at him and ready to fire, and with that, Klaus turns around.

And jumps. 

He can’t stop himself from doing a flip as he free falls downwards towards the river, the sharp wind cutting at his eyes as he rapidly descends. There’s a stinging sensation in his side, but that’s the least of his worries, and for a split second, he wonders what it’ll feel like to drown. 

He may never know because the moment his body hits the water everything goes black. 

* * *

The little girl is definitely not pleased with him.

She’s ditched the bicycle, having opted for a walk instead of a ride today, and when she sees him she crosses her arms and groans. 

“This is the second time in a month,” She says to him frustratedly, as if he _doesn’t_ know that. “Have you no common sense?”

“I guess not,” Klaus shrugs, rubbing the back of his neck with his hands. He wonders if Dave is nearby—how he wishes to see him again. “Hey, any chance I can—”

“Stay?” She finishes for him, and he nods tentatively. “No. I don’t want you here, so I’m sending you back—and I better not see you again until it’s your time, is that clear?”

“Crystal,” Klaus sighs, pushing the thought of Dave away. 

“Your body should be healed in a minute,” the little girl grumbles, but then after a second, she glances back up at him, her face losing some of its previous hostility. “But Klaus? Just so you know, your actions and sacrifices don’t go unnoticed.”

With that, she turns around and walks away. 

Klaus’ vision goes white, and he’s falling once again.

* * *

The first thing he does upon waking is turning on his side and retching up all the water that was in his lungs. 

He sits there, hunched over, pale arms shaking as he coughs everything up, his lungs burning for air. Faintly, he hears someone say his name, but all he can do is sit there and cough as he struggles to breathe. Once he’s finally done, he flops back down onto his back, looking up to see Ben staring down at him, his eyes wide as he watches Klaus, unable to do anything. 

“Told you I’d come back,” Klaus manages to rasp out with a grin. 

All Ben does is nod, leaning back on his heels, shifting his eyes towards the river that’s a couple of feet away from them. Klaus must have drifted onto shore during his temporary death. 

“Did it work?” Klaus asks as he suddenly remembers what the point of this was. 

“Yeah, it worked,” Ben nods, and Klaus lets out a sigh of relief. “As soon as they saw you jumped they figured you all did and called it a day.”

“So the others got away?” 

“Most likely,” Ben says. “After I watched the guys leave I jumped in after you. I found you here—you were out for about ten minutes.”

“Hm,” Klaus thinks for a second. “That’s longer than last time.”

“Yeah,” Ben agrees, but doesn’t meet his eyes. 

After Klaus catches his breath, he stands up, his knees a bit weak at first but they strengthen as they walk along the shore in the direction of the motel he’d told them to regroup at. After walking for a few minutes, they decide they should probably climb the walls of the gorge—Klaus does so very carefully because he doesn’t know what the little girl will do to him if he shows up there twice in less than half an hour. Ben follows from behind, despite being able to float, but Klaus appreciates his brother’s willingness to suffer alongside him. 

The river carried him in the direction the tunnel went, thankfully, so a bit of his walking time was cut out. Ben guesses that the motel is about an hour away from where they are now, so they start walking until they find a road, and then they follow the road to where the motel is. 

“I hope Allison is okay,” Klaus says as they walk.

“Yeah,” Ben agrees. His responses had only consisted of one word for the entire time they’ve been walking. 

Klaus frowns, glancing at his brother, who’s walking with his head down. 

“What’s the matter?” Klaus questions him, because he’s a good brother, damnit.

Ben stops walking, his eyes flashing with emotion. “What’s the _matter?_ You _died_ less than an hour ago and you’re asking me what’s the _matter?”_

“Uh, yeah, I _am_ , because you’re acting as if this is the first time this has happened,” Klaus throws his arms in the air because he doesn’t understand what the big deal is. 

“Exactly, Klaus! The _problem_ is you’ve died more than once, this time on _purpose_! How many times are you going to test the limits of God’s patience, huh? How many times are you going to risk your life like it’s no big fucking deal?”

“What did you expect me to _do_?” Klaus bursts out, “Our siblings would have _died_ if I didn’t do what I did, Ben, so do me a favor and piss off—and don’t tell me any of the rest of you wouldn’t have done the same thing in my position, because you know as well as I do that’s a damn lie!”

Ben growls in enraged frustration, and they walk the rest of the way in silence. 

Klaus can find the room his siblings are in pretty easily—it’s the one the bloody footprints lead to. 

“You’d think you would have the decency to at least _t_ _ell them_ what happened, Klaus,” Ben speaks up as Klaus approaches the door, no less angry than he was twenty minutes ago. 

“You’d think,” Klaus agrees dismissively, before raising his fist to the door and knocking. “Housekeeping!” he calls out in a high pitched voice. 

“You just don’t want to tell them because you know they’ll be just as pissed as I am,” Ben crosses his arms, leaning against the motel wall. 

There’s some shuffling coming from inside, and the door opens to reveal an exhausted-looking Luther, whose eyes widen when they fall on Klaus. 

“Well yeah, but a watched pot never stirs,” Klaus says to his ghostly brother as he slides past Luther and enters the room, ignoring Ben’s mutters about how that isn’t how the phrase goes and how it doesn’t make sense anyways. The cool air of the motel room meets his still dripping wet clothes, making him shiver. “Now where the _hell_ is the mini-bar?”

“ _Klaus…_?” Diego chokes out from behind him as he reaches into the mini-fridge and pulls out a bottle of whiskey. Klaus turns around, and when he turns back around he realizes all of his siblings are staring at him. Luther has yet to shut the door, standing as if he’s frozen. Vanya and Allison are sitting on one of the beds, Vanya’s head wrapped in bandages, and both of their eyes are red and bloodshot as if they’d been crying before he came in. Diego is sitting in the chair next to their bed, his foot bandaged and propped up on another chair in front of him, and he’s leaning forward as far as he can as if he’s trying to figure out if Klaus is real or not. Five is on the other bed, shirtless with bandages going around his midsection, staring at him like he’s seen a ghost—really, they all look like they’ve seen a ghost, and isn’t that ironic? 

“Hey guys, nice to see we all made it out alive,” Klaus grins easily, popping the lid off of his whiskey and taking a drink. “Five, your former friends are crazy, you know that?”

They sit in silence, and Klaus wonders if there’s a Target nearby where he can buy new clothes—he usually doesn’t shop at places like that, but dammit he’s cold and uncomfortable. 

“I watched you jump,” Diego cuts into the silence, and Klaus looks up at him, feeling his grin falter. 

“Oh, yeah. Hey, did you see my flip? I bet it looked so cool, wish I could’ve gotten it on camera—”

“There’s no way anyone could survive that fall,” Diego looks haunted as he continues to stare, unblinking. “That should have k-k-killed y-you.”

“Yeah, bummer, I know,” Klaus sighs, leaning back against the small dresser that stands next to the mini-bar. “But hey, I had a nice swim so it all worked out. Now, we need to figure out how we’re gonna beat them next time—I probably only bought us a little bit of time before they realized I tricked them, they’ll realize we’re not dead pretty soon and come knocking on our door. Any ideas? Luther?”

“Don’t you dare change the fucking subject,” Five hisses, and Klaus thinks the only reason Five hasn’t moved to punch him is the bullet wound in his stomach. “How the hell did you survive that fall? Because Diego’s right, falling from that height into water is lethal, and yet you’re standing here with nothing but a few bruises to show for it.”

“A magician never reveals his secrets,” Klaus winks and immediately regrets his words when Five’s eyes start to twitch with rage. He looks over at Ben, who is leaning against the wall and glowering at the floor.

_What if you don’t come back this time?_

“Okay, fine, I’ll share just this one secret,” Klaus sighs, and Ben finally looks up. “You want to know how I survived? Well, I kind of… didn’t.”

The room falls silent again, save for Allison’s tiny gasp. 

“What the hell does that mean?” Diego demands bewilderedly. 

“It means that I spent ten...” Klaus looks over at Ben to make sure he’s got the time right. Ben nods his head stiffly. “I spent ten minutes upstairs, getting my ass chewed out by the little girl who apparently hates me for some reason. I mean, I can guess why, but still, she’s grumpy. Five, I think you two would get along well, actually.”

“Upstairs?” Vanya frowns and then pales. “Wait, you mean…?”

“The Afterlife? Yeah, that’s the one,” Klaus nods, taking another swig of whiskey. “But yeah, I guess God not liking me worked out in my favor because if she didn’t end up sending me back that would’ve been hella embarrassing, considering I announced all confidently to you guys that I would be back. Hey, does this mini bar have Cheetos?”

Klaus bends down to look over the snack selection, feeling disappointed when he doesn’t find any Cheetos, but it doesn’t seem like his siblings’ questioning session is quite over yet. 

“How did you know you would come back?” Five asks, his face dark.

“Huh?”

“Yeah, how did you know you wouldn’t…” the words die on Diego’s tongue as horror creeps up onto his face. “You’ve died before.” It’s more of a statement than a question because he knows he’s just figured out the missing piece of the puzzle. “Oh my God, you’ve died before—you’ve died before and you didn’t tell us, Klaus, why didn’t you tell me?”

“Look, let’s not get emotional about this, it’s not a big deal—I’ve come back more times than Jesus, so what? I’m here, I’m alive, so let’s just move on, okay? Because frankly, this is bumming me out.”

“ _Not a big deal_ ’?” The vein in Five’s temple is throbbing, and Klaus is about to walk out the door and find a motel room where he can take a shower in peace. “We thought you were _dead_ because you failed to mention this little party trick of yours! Why can’t your tiny idiot brain comprehend—”

“I’m sorry, okay, but in my defense, I explicitly told you guys to _r_ _un,_ ” Klaus cuts in, slamming the bottle down onto the dresser, looking straight at Diego, who refuses to look guilty. “You weren’t supposed to see what I did because you were _supposed_ to be halfway down the tunnel by then! If those guys hadn’t been fooled then they would’ve gone down that tunnel and killed you all, and while I can come back to life, _you guys can’t_.”

“You don’t get to be upset with me, Klaus, no way—”

Five raises his hand, and the room falls silent—his presence as commanding as always.

“Fine, Klaus, you’re right,” Five says, and Klaus’ eyes bug out of his head at the admission. “But no matter, the secret is out and we’re all alive—but the problem here is that you are too comfortable with the concept of death. I can’t have you jumping off cliffs anytime you think it might help whatever situation, because there may be a time when you’re _not able to come back._ So while I’m proud of you for taking the initiative today, you have to _promise_ you won’t do anything like that again. It’s a risk I’m not willing to take.”

Klaus sighs, grabbing the bottle and swishing around the contents inside.

“Do you promise?”

They’re all watching him, even Ben, waiting for him to tell them what they want to hear. They want to hear that he won’t willingly throw himself into danger, that he won’t step in if it means he could be saving someone else. He thinks back to the night Dave died, and if he’d known back then he couldn’t die, he would’ve taken that bullet in a heartbeat. 

When he was younger, he’d always been so fearful, so afraid that if he died, he would end up just like one of the ghosts that haunted him. Now, even before his first trip to the Great Beyond, he’s indifferent. Sure, it’s nice to be here with his family, but life hasn’t been good enough to make him want to stay. 

But they don’t have to know that.

“Yeah, I promise,” Klaus lies, he knows it’s a lie, and he wonders if any of his siblings believe him. Allison, Vanya, Luther, and Diego all look relieved. Five looks suspicious but nods his head anyways. 

He looks at Ben.

Ben looks away. 

With the serious conversation finally over, Klaus takes a hot shower, glad to strip off all of his dirty wet clothes. When he gets out, he only puts his underwear back on before going out into the room, never afraid to show too much because if you’ve got it, flaunt it. Diego is now sitting on Five’s bed, and when he looks over at Klaus he frowns, his eyes trained on Klaus’ stomach. Klaus looks down to see deep bruises covering his entire torso.

“The result of the most epic belly flop of the century,” Klaus chuckles, and Diego shoots him a dirty glare. “Right, sorry, too soon?”

“It’ll always be too soon, asshole,” Diego rolls his eyes, patting the spot next to him.

In the morning, they’ll have to figure out a way to take down the Commission for good. But for now, Klaus can brush that off as he slides under the covers, closing his eyes and sighing at the warmth it gives, and he faintly feels Luther drape his large coat over Klaus’ body. He falls asleep with Diego holding onto his wrist, two fingers resting where his pulse is at all times, and Klaus can’t deny the touch brings him comfort. 

Times like these always make living worth it. 

**Author's Note:**

> klaus can be dumb sometimes, but he always means well.
> 
> let me know what you think if you'd like!


End file.
